Mike Bobo is winning, but he can’t be happy. Kirby Smart won the last time. Smart can’t be happy until he at least evens the score.

Professionally, the competition is college football at its highest level, and it almost doesn’t get any higher than the SEC Championship Game. At 3 p.m. CST Saturday, Bobo’s No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (11-1) will battle Smart’s No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide (11-1). Bobo’s offense vs. Smart’s defense could be the game within the game. The winner will play for a national championship in five weeks.

Personally, these best friends and former Georgia teammates and roommates wage frequent wars with each other.

“We’ve tended to compete at everything that we’ve ever done, from cards to golf to who can get to the store the fastest,” Bobo said this week.

“It’s just one of those things. It never ends pretty, so let’s just see not really who wins or loses but who talks the most. That’s usually in golf, but he usually has the better partner, by the way.”

Smart’s father has witnessed these intense battles.

“They are both such competitors,” Sonny Smart said. “That’s the way they grew up. It’s in their nature. They’ve been that way since they were little kids. …

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a coin toss. They are extremely competitive. It’s a fun thing. There are never hard feelings. They get after each other, but when it’s over, they’re still friends.”

Mike Bobo played quarterback for Georgia and now coaches the Bulldogs' quarterbacks. (AP photo)

They’re far more than friends. They’re like brothers. Almost identical twins. Their fathers are retired high school football coaches. Their mothers were teachers.

The parents now live 10 miles apart in the mountains of Rabun County, where George Bobo served on Sonny Smart’s coaching staff for a few years.

But these sons were raised in south Georgia, 50 miles apart. Kirby Smart is from Bainbridge. Mike Bobo is from Thomasville. They have known each other since childhood, when they served as ballboys for their fathers’ teams.

Bobo played quarterback for Georgia from 1993-97. Smart played safety for the Bulldogs from 1994-98. Bobo was a captain in 1996 and ’97. Smart was a captain in ’98.

In 2005, Smart was Georgia’s running backs coach, and he and Bobo “were just like two peas in a pod,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. But except for that one year, these friends have gone separate ways in coaching careers that appear destined for bigger battles ahead.

In the head-to-head battles behind, the scoreboard barely favors Bobo.

“This is a game where we’re not playing,” he said. “He ain’t on the field and I ain’t on the field. We’ve got to go out there and help put our players in the best position to win and execute, and hopefully that’s what we’ll do on Saturday.”

Richt was asked if these coordinators will need tranquilizers by Saturday afternoon.

“There’s a lot of pride there,” Richt said. “They want to win. They’re both highly competitive guys, man. They love football. They’re great football coaches. They’re super competitive. They want to win. They certainly want to win against one of their best friends in life that they’re going to have to talk with and deal with the rest of the year and the rest of their careers.

“Yeah, that is an interesting matchup right there.”

Bobo said he and Smart barely speak during a season, though they exchange text messages after big victories or tough losses.

They no longer talk about recruiting, that other heated battlefield.

“We used to ride around together in the spring, when it wasn’t so competitive,” Bobo said. “And now it’s all moved up in the world where people are committing a lot earlier. So we don’t really talk about recruiting a bunch anymore either.”

These friends were in each other’s wedding, and they see each other in the offseason, often gathering with other families in places such as Destin, Fla., Jacksonville, Fla., Atlanta and Reynolds Plantation south of Athens. They visited last summer at Smart’s house in Tuscaloosa. It’s a big extended family. Bobo has five children, including triplets. Smart has three, including twins.

Richt tried to lure Smart to Georgia after Alabama won the 2009 national championship by offering to double his salary. Alabama matched the $750,000 offer. Smart stayed, and he has resisted other overtures. His salary now is $950,000 per year.

Bobo is a finalist for the Frank Broyles Award, which goes annually to the nation’s top assistant coach. He laughed when it was noted that Smart won the award in 2009.

“He was first,” Bobo said.

Always keeping score. …

Here’s more: Smart already has two national championship rings. Bobo has none.